Rivermen Roll Past Storm, Hagaman Rolls into Third All-Time Scoring on Sunday
March 26, 2023 - 06:06 pm
PEORIA, IL– Alec Hagaman made history and the Rivermen made a lot of noise in their 8-2 thumping of the Quad City Storm at Carver Arena on Sunday night.
Unlike Saturday night, Peoria did not have the hot start they hoped would carry over as The Quad City Storm were able to capitalize on a short-handed odd-man rush to take a 1-0 lead. It took a Rivermen power play to tie the game up as the Rivermen were able to get a goal from right in front as Mitch McPherson deposited the puck into the back of the net on a third-chance opportunity to tie the game 1-1.
Peoria took a quick lead in the second period as Alec Baer received the puck behind the net off of a turnover. Quickly spying Mitch McPherson in the slot, Baer sent a quick pass to McPherson who rifled a shot off the right post and in to put the Rivermen up 2-1. Quad City answered back seen minutes later and a shot in tight produced a rebound out in front that the Storm pounced on to tie the game 2-2.
It was all a question of who wanted the third period, and that question was answered empathically by the Rivermen. Six unanswered goals in the third period by Zach Wilkie, Joseph Widmar, and Jordan Ernst put the game out of reach quickly of the Storm. Alec Hagaman assisted on three of those goals to become the third all-time leading scorer in the Southern professional hockey league. In total six Rivermen had multi-point games, with two of them (JM Piotrowski with four assists and Jordan Ernst with two goals and three assists) with four points or more.
Peoria clinches home ice of the first round of the playoffs with five games to go before the start of the post-season. They will travel to Roanoke in their first meeting with the Rail Yard Dawgs since winning the President’s Cup in March of 2022.
